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I: Small Sparks3,175 words
II: Bright Lights3,586 words
III: Dark Dreams2,827 words
IV: Old Nightmares2,274 words

IV: Old Nightmares

Author's Note:

Sorry for such a late chapter!

I had a bit of a hiatus because I wasn't feeling the whole writing thing anymore..

Well, now I am! I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Additionally, I know that the chapter was shorter than most of the others, but that's because it's really just the third chapter's second part. The other chapters of the story will be longer for sure! Speaking of other chapters, I have updated the description to say that I have no update schedule at this moment, as college is taking up a large portion of my time and I can occasionally find bits and pieces of spare hours to write in. Please be patient and rest assured that this story will indeed be continuing.

— Tempered by Flame —

– Chapter IV: Old Nightmares –

　　　The ground below him cracked loudly, sounding almost exactly like a bone being broken in two, as his hoof stepped out of the swirling portal that he had activated a dimension away. The slightly squirming cacoon of green slime rested on his back with a weight that was more than physical. Within the green confines of her prison, the little filly was fighting futilely against the natural sedative that was laced throughout the sticky substance. There wasn't a changeling to be seen in any direction once he had surfaced completely from the green flames of the portal, though it wouldn't take long for them to start showing up once the smell of the new catch started to permeate the air. Somehow they were able to sense the fear and terror through the ash that hung in the sky because of the fires that burned deep in the many crevices that cut ditches in the ground, a talent that Needle hadn't been able to perform without coughing violently. While he was still alone and relatively unpressured to be in a hurry, Needle Wings gave himself a moment to breath and calm his nerves before he had to face the rest of his village.
　　　
　　Once he had reached the place where he had stepped into the world for the first time that night, his hooves stumbled as his mind shot back into its normal thought processes. Waiting for him there was a terrible rush of guilt that nearly made him fall onto the ground, though he had just enough concentration left to cast the spell on the portal stone, his mind unable to think through the painful emotion that wracked his body. After crawling into the portal with his prey behind him, Needle closed his eyes and whispered out a silent prayer for the family of the little pony that he had taken. "I'm sorry."
　　
　　It didn’t take long to get back, it never did.

　　The relative calmness that surrounded him was broken by the sound of buzzing wings, at first only a single set of them but quickly being followed by more and more until the air was filled with the deafening noise. He looked up from the poor pony on his back and saw more than a few black figures there, blotting out the ashy grey sky like drops of ink. A glance behind at the fading portal showed him even more changelings hovering there, waiting. The only sound he could hear was that of their fragile wings flapping, all other noise being blocked out by the sheer number of them. And this is just a few. Needle couldn't help but shudder at that thought, though he did his best to push it away as he straightened himself and stared forward, past all the changelings surrounding him and towards the village. There was no point waiting anymore, the filly on his back was going to die regardless of what he did. There wasn’t any way that the portal would open again in such a short time.
　　
　　Needle Wings couldn’t help but let his hooves drag slightly in the ash as he began the short journey into the village, a shiver running down his spine every few minutes as he felt more and more eyes rest on his form. In the distance the changeling town simply looked like a cluster of black rectangles jutting up into the air like some sort of disease. Some of them were toppled onto one another whilst others simply ended halfway up as if the rest of the spire had simply disappeared. The entire place looked inhabitable and deserted, just like the entire landscape around it. Needle stumbled a little as his hoof caught in one of the many holes that dotted the pock-marked surface for miles, made from changelings practicing their spells or from hunts for prey that had managed to escape. There were bones as well, their bleached white contrasting with the fire-blackened dirt around it and somehow making the whole place seem even more hostile; those who had gotten out alive didn’t stay that way for long.
　　
　　After what felt like forever, Needle found himself, along with his entourage of changelings, entering the place that they all called home, though to him it was less of a home and more like a place that he couldn’t escape out of need. All around him rose the black rock, blocking out the view of the burnt and desolate world outside and forcing a feeling of imprisonment onto his mind. The streets weren’t any better than the ground that he had plodded through to get here, though now he only had to deal with the feeling of being followed, rather than the feeling of being surrounded.
　　
　　It didn’t take long for Needle to reach the town’s center, a great, paved circle that was large enough to hold the entire village’s population during the feeding, which is exactly what he turned to face after he had jumped onto the altar. While it was custom for the hunter to have claim to the prey, the extra emotions that dispersed into the air while the pony was being tortured were greedily sucked up by the lucky changelings that happened to be close enough. Hundreds of eyes stared up at him as he turned full circle to see all of the hundreds of hungry beings that fully expected him to do what he was born to do.
　　
　　The deafening sound of silence, punctuated only by the thudding of his heart, was all he could hear as they waited for him to feed. The pounding grew harder and harder, almost becoming painful the closer he got to the little filly that he had set down in the center of the pedestal in the view of every changeling there, a succulent meal in their eyes. With a small flash of green from his horn, Needle split open her cacoon and pulled her out into the open for all to see, ignoring the tiny coughs that she gave once she breathed in the ash-laden air as best he could. He moved with a methodical sort of grace as he grabbed her front hooves and pinned them against the rough stone, using his magic to pin her hind hooves down so she couldn’t resist her fate. Even the pounding of his heart faded away as he moved closer and closer to her neck, leaving behind nothing but a dead silence in his ears. “I’m sorry.” Then he did something that he wasn’t ever supposed to do. Something that cut him to the core of his very being and made the thought of feeding from such an innocent creature unimaginable.
　　
　　He looked into her eyes.
　　
　　They were wet with tears and wide with sheer terror, seeing only a monster standing above her with fangs that were ready to sink into her neck and for all she knew suck out her blood like the vampire he appeared to be. As he looked into the depths of her eyes and soul, he could see for the thousandth time what he really was. He saw a monster reflected in those teary eyes, a monster that had taken away from a family that loved her and feed from her pain that he would cause.
　　
　　“No.” His whispered word was barely audible to his own ears as he stood up suddenly, stepping away from the filly and falling backwards off of the pedestal, an action mimicked by her as well, though she was simply lifted up by a green aura and held down against the pedestal by one of the older changelings who had a keen eye for food trying to escape. “No.” It was louder this time, just barely reaching the ones around him over all of the confused whispers and the buzzing of irritated wings. In the next instant, Needle hurtled himself into the air and flew off as fast as his wings could take him, getting as far as way as possible before the shrieks of pain and agony started.
　　
　　Needless to say, he didn’t get far enough.
　　
　　The wails filled his ears for a few brief seconds until something slammed into his side mid-flight and brought him crashing to the ground. After the world spun around, Needle found himself staring up at the slightly blurry, but no less terrifying, face of his older brother. “What in the name of Chrysalis are you doing!?” A hoof punched at his chest, holding him down against the jagged street. “Do you have any idea how you looked up there? How embarrassing it was to see you act like a hatchling who didn’t know how to feed!?” A jolt ran down his spine as his brother’s horn clashed with his own, angry eyes glaring into still confused ones. “Do you have the slightest idea how badly you just ruined our family’s reputation in the village?” The weight on his chest lifted as the irate changeling stomped away and turned around, still shaking with visible rage. “What were you doing up there?”
　　
　　“I...” He paused for a moment after clambering to his hooves, one of them poised in the air to take a step closer to the changeling before him. “Fayde, have you ever stopped to think about what it is that we do?” He shuddered lightly as the screams in the not-so-distant distance stopped suddenly. Though it wasn’t any relief to him, as they continued to play on repeat in his mind. “I mean, don’t you ever think about... Well, the ponies we do it to?” His words faltered a little at the end as his brother’s face morphed into a mask of careful indifference, though Needle knew that there was a burning anger hiding beneath it; he had been struck by his brother and father after mentioning this far too many times for him to hope that there would be no repercussions.
　　
　　“We do what we need to do to survive, Needle, nothing more.”
　　
　　“Nothing more?” He stepped forward boldly, his hoof pointing to where the rest of the changelings were likely still scrounging for the scraps of emotions that would remain in the air for a few minutes after the pony had passed away. “Torturing a little pony for food? Having them as soulless toys of entertainment like some of us do? That’s nothing more?”
　　
　　“Needle, watch your tongue.” Fayde pressed a hoof against his chest firmly, shoving him back a step as well. “You should know that we get the most food from a pony with the more pain we cause it. That’s why we draw it out like we do.”
　　
　　His body shook with passion as he shoved the pushing hoof away, stepping forward and shoving his own hoof into Fayde’s chest instead. “Why haven’t we come up with a way to feed without hurting them!? All of this pain isn’t necessary and you know it! There has to be a way!”
　　
　　“Why should we care about them? They’re just food to us, Needle! In the end all they do is serve to feed us!”
　　
　　“No, they are more than that! They—” His protests were silenced by a hoof colliding with his mouth mid sentence and by the ground that caught him as he fell. In the next instant Needle found himself on his hooves once more, blinking away the stars in his vision and baring his fangs at his brother. “Fayde!” Without any further words he leapt into action, his fangs aimed straight at his brother’s throat so they could tear out his trachea and end his life in an instant.
　　
　　That never happened.
　　
　　Just before Needle’s fangs were about to crack through the thin carapace, it changed into light blue fur that waved slightly with the ashy breeze. Time seemed to slow down as he got closer and closer, too late to stop his jaws from closing around the soft throat and tearing into the flesh, filling his mouth with the coppery taste of blood.
　　
　　“No!”
　　
　　His eyes opened as fast as they possibly could, his body jerking upright and hooves flailing as he jumped up to stand, slowed only by a few throbs of pain that jolted around his body when he moved the wrong way. The forest around him was dark as he began to gallop away from his dreams, away from his old haunts.
　　
　　Though he soon found an even darker darkness as he tripped over what felt like tree roots and tumbled head-first into a pond, though something soon pulled him out by his back hooves. It was a pony, that much was for certain, though it wasn’t one that he had ever seen before. “You.... You’re one of those monsters that took my sister..” He had enough brain power left to realize he was in trouble after whoever was holding him threw him back down onto the forest floor, jarring him back even closer to unconsciousness. “Where is she!?” His world shook violently as his body was shoved roughly around on the ground. “What did you do with my sister!?”
　　
　　“I-I don’t—” Pain spread out in an instant as something jabbed into the side of his head, pain strong enough to send him tumbling into an even darker black than the world around him, a distraught scream following him briefly before it was swallowed up by a ringing silence.